Facebook Gives Up Its 30% Revenue Cut From Android Instant Games

Facebook is ceding its 30-percent cut of revenues from Android apps created as part of its Instant Games platform, the company announced Tuesday. The change is live momentarily, i.e. will be applied to the invoicing period that started on August 1. Moving forward, Instant Games developers will hence retain 70-percent of their Android revenues, with the remainder going to Google. Facebook will still be taking a 30-percent cut on all revenues generated through Instant Games in desktop browsers, the social media giant confirmed. The move is meant to encourage more developers to embrace the gaming platform, though it's presently unclear whether it will see Facebook operate the project at a loss, provided that hasn't already been the case.

The change raises developer revenue share on Android by 21-percent seeing how Facebook's old 30-percent cut was calculated from the 70-percent base that was left after Google already took its own cut, leaving Android creators with only 49-percent of the total turnover. Facebook's announcement comes some two years after the firm introduced Instant Games in the form of a platform for casual time wasters designed to be played in the Facebook and Messenger apps. The ecosystem officially launched this April following a lengthy beta period, with support for in-app purchases and other monetization techniques such as ads being introduced a month later.

The Menlo Park, California-based Internet giant is now clearly positioning Instant Games as part of its long-term engagement strategy that had to be revamped earlier this year after the company decided to introduce aggressive measures to combat misinformation, essentially making sure that any time commitment to its offerings results in well-spent time for users, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg put it. Facebook's Instant Games ecosystem will be celebrating its second anniversary in late November, with more improvements and novelties being expected to be introduced to the platform in the near future.

Dominik started at AndroidHeadlines in 2016 and is the Head Editor of the site today. He’s approaching his first full decade in the media industry, with his background being primarily in technology, gaming, and entertainment. These days, his focus is more on the political side of the tech game, as well as data privacy issues, with him looking at both of those through the prism of Android. Contact him at [email protected]